Kim Young-tak, head of the South Korean delegation to the inter-Korean talks in Kaesong, on Thursday showed concerns on the results of the meeting on his way back to Seoul.

"I am very concerned that we could not make any progress as we couldn't narrow our differences on the issues brought up," Kim said as he was crossing the inter-Korean border from Kaesong.

Without an afternoon session, the delegation crossed the border to South Korea at 05:15 p.m. (0815 GMT).

Earlier in the day, he and 11 other member of his delegation head for the Kaesong Joint Industrial Park to participate in the third-round of the government-level talks between South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Before crossing the border to head for Kaesong, Kim had said that South Korea will put its priority on the issue of a South Korean worker who has been detained in the DPRK since late March for publicly denouncing the regime.

"We will go over issues one by one, bringing up first those that are most agreeable," Kim told the reporters.

However, unlike previous expectations, the talks ended without any breakthroughs, as South Korea could not reach an agreement on the detained worker issue, while the DPRK insisted on its previous position of raising the land rent to 500 million U.S. dollars.

With respect to the issue of lifting a border traffic ban, Kim refused to give details, saying that they were still in the middle of negotiations.

Unlike the previous two rounds of talks held in June, the Thursday meeting ended without agreeing on the date for a follow-up meeting.

Source: Xinhua